Banstead’s MP Crispin Blunt will stand in the next election after his reselection as parliamentary candidate today.

Tory party members in his constituency have voted to reselect the MP after he lost the backing of local senior Conservatives.

A Conservative source confirmed that Mr Blunt was reselected by a very substantial majority.

Mr Blunt has fought to be reselected after Reigate and Banstead Conservative Association's executive council failed to back him in a secret ballot in September.

Blunt: Ballot should not have taken place at all

Mr Blunt said he was "delighted" by the result and added: "With this overwhelming endorsement I wish to reinvigorate and unite the local party, having reflected on the circumstances which led to this result.

"I very much regret that this ballot had to take place at all. Like many of my supporters I was astonished by the irrational and unexpected action of the Executive Council in September.

"It came without warning that there was any aspect of my performance as MP that was terminally inadequate, and, in the absence of any serious issue around my performance as MP, brought the local party into disrepute.

"Happily the wider membership has rescued the reputation of Reigate and the Conservatives by a thumping margin."

"Today’s result makes a clear statement about Reigate and the Conservative Party: that we are fair; that we are tolerant; and that we judge others on their ability, not on characteristics that are beyond their control.

"Those members of the Executive Council who voted against my candidacy in the absence of a cogent reason they could publicly present and having now been so convincingly contradicted by the wider membership must ask themselves how they can best assist uniting and reinvigorating a party which is overwhelmingly united around my candidacy.
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"I take very seriously the trust and kindness that Association members have shown to me, and want to use that confidence to best advance the Conservative cause locally and nationally.”

Executive council labelled 'intolerant' in sexuality row

While fighting for his political survival, Tory big guns including Michael Gove visted the area and David Cameron praised him in the Commons.

Mr Blunt was elected as the Conservative MP for Reigate in 1997 replacing Sir George Gardiner who had been deselected by the local Conservative association.

The former prisons minister was among the MPs who voted against the Government by rejecting possible military action in Syria in August.

It has been claimed that Mr Blunt was not reselected because he came out as gay in 2010.

At the time he separated from his wife Victoria, who he married in 1990 and had two children with.

Reigate and Banstead Conservative Association member Dr Ben Mearns said some of the executive council are “intolerant” and mainly did not vote for him because of his sexuality.

Mr Blunt voted in favour of gay marriage this year and hailed the bill as part of an ‘astonishing and wonderful change’.

Mr Blunt was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and went on to serve as an army officer before entering politics.

He is the former chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council and warned of “catastrophe” before security forces dispersed protesters in Cairo this summer.

In 2003 he resigned from the Tory’s front bench saying then-leader Iain Duncan Smith had no chance of leading his party to victory at the next election.

 

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